On March 3, 2003, The 365 Days Project featured
a 1963 recording of computer speech, produced by Bell
Telephone Labs. In 1970, the phone company published another
record about speech though the purpose of this one is
somewhat nebulous. The record jacket states:

All of us are familiar with the sounds
of foreign tongues. We enjoy hearing the rolling softness
of French, for example, or the guttural strength of
German. All of us also have heard the speech of the
black American. But we rarely grant it the same consideration
we extend automatically to the languages of other lands.
The black dialect, as seen by the linguist, is the subject
of this record...At a time when interracial communication
and understanding are assuming enormous importance,
this record hopes to help explain for listeners of all
races what black dialect is and how it functions. The
intent is, simply, information. The difficult goal is
to let us all, as we talk with one another, hear with
open ears.

In this excerpt, we hear a young black man
graduating and being congratulated by his teacher. The
narrator explains to us that because of the young man's
speech, he probably won't get a good job. We next hear
him being interviewed for a job. The young graduate appears
not to know how to spell his own name on his job application.
The employer offers him a job in the company's "mechanical
department". The young man balks at the offer and
says he wants an office job with his name on his desk.
The employer tries to reason with him, but the young man
won't hear of a job as a mechanic. He is shown the door,
and then is heard back on the street with his buddies,
calling the employer a "blue-eyed devil" and
"just another honky".

This record was produced for schools and
libraries. I can just imagine a group of white teens listening
to this in their school library in, say 1971, and laughing
their heads off - playing it again, and laughing even
harder. Well, the album's producer Paul K. Winston, and
director Jeffrey Berman tell us that "the intent
is, simply, information". It seems to me another
albeit unstated intent was a bit of mean-spirited comedy
at the expense of the very people they were purporting
to help.

Chris Frame writes:
I just wanted to point out a mistake: "The young
graduate appears not to know how to spell his own name
on his job application." This is not the case.
Of course he knows how to spell his name and I'm sure
it was not the intent of the record producers to imply
that he could not. If you listen to it again, you will
notice that the applicant did not include his middle name
on the application, so the employer is filling it in.
Because the young black man does not pronounce it in a
way that the employer easily understands, the employer
tries to phonetically spell it based on the applicant's
pronunciation. So, if you don't mind me saying, your interpretation
is wrong, and I would like to see you change it, if you
don't mind. What I also find interesting is this: "It
seems to me another albeit unstated intent was a bit of
mean-spirited comedy at the expense of the very people
they were purporting to help." I find this a
bit annoying and a very, very politically correct thing
to say. Are you trying to say that black speech patterns
don't exist, or that they really don't affect a black
person's ability to get a job. An employer may want to
do the 'right thing' and give everyone an equal chance,
but even today, if someone comes in and talks in that
ghetto dialect, it's going to throw people off. It's the
same today as it was 30 years ago. One may call it mean
spirited, but do you not think that it is based in truth?
Why are we afraid to point these things out. Well, I've
said my piece. Thank you for your time.